Reddit OP here. > Nearly impossible. No financial firm is going to pay a 24-year-old that kind of salary, so it's only possible if he got it through bonus. Tra

Reddit OP here. > Nearly impossible. No financial firm is going to pay a 24-year-old that kind of salary, so it's only possible if he got it through bonus. Traders get bonuses based on P&L, usually around 10% if they're senior. Let's say 10%. Then he made 9 figures for his firm... but no firm is going to let a 24-year-old take enough risk to generate a 9-figure P&L. I agree it's nearly impossible, which is why I make the post. I would like to point out I've been working here longer than my age implies. > I'm calling bullshit. A skeptical and reasonable position to have. If I weren't me, I'd also call fake. > [Update: Well-executed, and he's clearly smart, but his story is incredible. No one hires a 24-year-old to start a desk. This is probably one of XO's finest.] "Start a desk" really meant I was given a little capital to build out a quant-trading platform and maybe a bit to mess around with. It took a while to get lines and machines set up, set up data collection, etc. After that, the capital and risk limits I was given was on par with other junior traders. Why didn't they hire an experienced quant trader right off the bat? My firm didn't have the right infrastructure to support quant trading, so any senior person would have asked for a big up-front bonus to be setting this stuff up. Management here was too cheap and risk-averse to pay this. They took the gamble on someone junior and technical.